The 3,000 Era
by PenPatronus
Summary: TONY SURVIVED. Now every villain in the galaxy wants the time travel technology. The remaining Avengers led by Tony, Steve, Bruce, and Clint must protect the tech, its inventors, and all of Earth from alien invaders. Meanwhile, Earth struggles to cope when there's not enough food for the newly doubled population. Could it turn into World War Three? Whump, friendship, BROMANCE
1. The Redemption of Bucky Barnes

**Summary:** Every villain in the galaxy wants to get their hands on the time travel technology. The remaining Avengers led by Tony, Steve, Bruce, and Clint must protect the tech, its inventors, and all of Earth from alien invaders. POST-ENDGAME. TONY'S ALIVE & STEVE STAYED. Whump, friendship, drama, bromance. Ch 1: The Redemption of Bucky Barnes.

**The 3000 Era  
**PenPatronus  
Chapter 1  
**The Redemption of Bucky Barnes**

The decimated red gauntlet lay harmless on the dark ground. Infinity Stones glittered in the returning sunlight. The last flakes of dust disintegrated. Tony Stark's eyes were open, but unseeing.

The Wakandans and Asgardians were all shouting, chanting a single word over and over in their native tongues. Steve didn't need to translate either language to know they were yelling "VICTORY!" The racket crescendoed as if they were playing that childhood game where whoever makes the most noise wins. One side clanged swords together, causing a jingle to echo across the battlefield, while the other banged staffs and boots against the ground. Thor turned and marched away towards his brothers while T'Challa approached the crowd gathering around Tony Stark's body. Swords stopped clanging. Thor must have told them what Tony did, and what it cost. A second later, after seeing Pepper weeping over Tony's body, T'Challa yelled and his people went quiet. The news spread across the battlefield of human and alien warriors. Silence settled. One by one every survivor saluted, knelt on one knee, or held their fists against their chests and bowed their heads in respect.

Thor returned with Clint and a human Bruce. The four surviving Avengers stood side by side, creating a semi-circle around Tony's body. Thor put his hand on Banner's shoulder. Bruce, who was crying unashamedly, reached behind Steve's back and grasped Clint's elbow. Then he put his other hand on Steve's right shoulder while Barton did the same with Steve's left. The foursome folded together, clinging to one another in grief. Pepper rose, then. She turned, eyes and nose red and lips trembling, and fell into Rhodey's open arms with a wail. Steve waited for a moment to see if she would return to her husband but when she didn't, it was he who leaned over and gently closed Tony's eyes. That, somehow more than anything else, made Tony's death real. Steve's tears fell onto his cheeks and his chin fell to his chest.

"Dr. Banner."

Bruce wiped his eyes with his undamaged hand and turned to find Dr. Strange. The Parker kid stood beside him, sniffling. Strange removed his cloak and Bruce watched, stunned, as the cloak floated over to the dropped Iron Man gauntlet and wrapped itself tight around the Infinity Stones. Wong and a half dozen other wizards stood guard above it. Strange shifted to reveal a small crowd behind him that included Rocket and Nebula. The tree was there. Bruce remembered it. The others were foreign. One woman was green.

"Dr. Banner, this is Peter Quill," Strange introduced. "Mr. Quill and his friends are…Allies."

"They're cool," said Parker with a strained voice. He sniffed hard. His eyes kept bouncing back and forth between Bruce and Tony.

Thor joined them. "They are cool, indeed," he said, vouching for the Guardians. Thor nodded at them in greeting.

Quill stepped forward. He stood leaning a bit to the left with his fists in his pockets. "He, um, he was a good man," Quill said, glancing at Tony.

"He was the best of us," Bruce said with what sounded like a head cold.

Quill cleared his throat. "There, uh, there are Morelians here. Came through one of the portals. Nice folk. Smart types. Pink."

"Exceptionally intelligent," the green woman interjected. "Morelians are known across the galaxy for their inventions. It's rumored that they can even bring back people from the dead."

"What?" Bruce whispered.

The Guardians parted and a short, elderly, pink woman approached dragging an assault rifle. Her lengthy hair was a darker shade of pink and her eyes were a shade lighter. She smiled at a Bruce with an empathetic expression. When she held her hand out, Bruce took it, and squeezed back. The old woman spoke then in a language that sounded like a hybrid of Polish and Swahili with an Australian accent. "She wants to know if it's true," Quill translated. "If it's true that Stark sacrificed himself to destroy Thanos."

"Thanos declared that he was going to destroy everything," Thor explained. "Tony Stark sacrificed himself to save the entire universe."

The pink woman's eyebrows closed ranks in sorrow. She said something else, and Quill translated her words precisely: "Our voices will tell every star in the galaxy about Tony Stark. A thousand generations will know his name."

"Thank you," said Bruce.

The woman cocked her head to one side, and then the other. Quill hesitated after she spoke once more. "I—I don't know that word," he admitted. "Gamora?"

"She asked if you have resurrection technology," said the green woman. The pink woman said some more things—several sentences followed several sentences. "It's true," Gamora sighed, sharing surprised looks with the Guardians. "The Morelians can resurrect mortals, but…"

"But what?" Clint appeared between Bruce and Thor. Like everyone else he was sweaty, bloody, and coated with fine dirt. His eyes shone with fresh grief.

Gamora hesitated, then explained, "The Morelians never, ever allow anyone but their own to use that technology. Their government forbids them from sharing any of their inventions with us 'lower' mortals. Never in the history of their civilization have they made an exception."

The pink woman smiled up at the three Avengers. She spoke two words. "Until now," Quill and Gamora translated simultaneously.

Banner and Thor grasped each other's shoulders in joy, in relief. Clint remained expressionless. There was no hope in his eyes. "What will it cost?" he whispered.

Instantly the woman lowered her eyes to the ground. She shifted her feet, causing her ankle-length gown to sway. She spoke without looking up. Quill translated without looking up. "The Morelians know that you used time travel. They want the technology. If you give it to them, they'll save Stark's life."

"**NO**." Bruce, Thor, and Clint stepped aside when Cap spoke. Steve entered the crowd with Mjolnir and his shield back in his hands. Tears had washed away some of the dirt on his fierce, pale face. The pink woman's height, frailty, and anxious expression didn't stop him from leaning forward into her personal space and repeating, "_No_."

"Adore," the pink woman said.

"Adore," said Gamora. "That is her name in Terran."

"Adore," Steve acknowledged. His posture didn't change. "Return to your government, Adore, and tell them they will never, ever get that technology. Nobody will. That tech stays with us."

Bruce grabbed Cap's sleeve. "Steve, if they can help, don't we owe this to Tony? Steve, don't you want him back?"

The look on Cap's face when he stared back at Bruce made the doctor backpedal several paces. Bruce, Thor, and Clint saw raw grief there that multiplied their own. "Imagine what could happen if time travel got into the wrong hands!" Steve hissed. "We can't let what happened here today be undone."

"But—" Thor began.

Steve turned his full attention to Bruce. "You know this is what Tony would want. He destroyed his weapons when he saw them in the hands of terrorists. He'd rather see the time travel tech destroyed than used against us. I'm sorry." Steve's voice broke. "I'm sorry, but I know this is what he would want."

Silence. Lingering. It was broken by a new voice. "He's right," Pepper Potts declared, joining the large group with Rhodes. "Steve is right," she sniffled.

Adore suddenly smiled, broadly, showing off coral-colored teeth. The alien woman spread her arms wide, looked at Clint, Thor, Bruce, Steve, and Pepper, and then declared something loudly. Quill exchanged an excited look with Gamora. "She says this was a test! She—She needed to know for sure that you wouldn't let the tech get into the wrong hands! She says it must be protected as carefully as the Infinity Stones, and she trusts you to take care of both. And for your reward… As a reward she **WILL** help Stark. She'll save him!"

Pepper fell to her knees before Adore and took her hands. Eyes shining, face desperate, trembling, Pepper said, "Thank you" and "Please, hurry." Adore pressed a kiss against Pep's forehead.

Scott Lang, T'Challa, Bucky, and Wanda were standing around the body, giving their respects to Stark, when Adore approached with a crowd behind her. At her instruction, Steve gently picked Tony up into his arms, carried him to a flat bit of ground, and laid him down there, flat on his back. He gestured for everyone to give them some room.

Adore reached into a pocket and took out what looked like a hybrid of a potato peeler and a pair of pliers. She held the device in the air above Tony's body and circled him like a cop outlining a murder victim in chalk. When she finished she flicked the device, and a holographic image of the inside of Tony's body floated above the corpse like a ghost. Steve stepped forward and stared down at 3D bones, organs, and muscle. The hologram was transparent except for serrated lines of black that stretched from Tony's right hand to every quadrant of his body. Nearly every bone in his rib cage was cracked. His spine was twisted. The bones that made up his right hand were just confetti. His liver was in three pieces.

The alien sighed. "Damage," Quill interpreted. "Extensive. His organs are…" Quill cleared his throat. "Cooked." Adore nodded. Her face drooped. "Human anatomy is... foreign. Uncanny? That might be the wrong word—sorry, guys." The alien pointed her device at Tony's heart and spoke again. "Yes!" Quill said, eyes wide. "Yes, that organ is important!"

Adore turned to Pepper. In broken English she said, "Dead body needs new dead body or dead body is dead."

"What?" Pepper sniffed. "I d-don't understand."

The alien pointed at Tony, then at Pepper. Then he pointed at Tony's closed eyes, then at Pepper's working eyes. Repeating the gesture, she pointed at Tony's twisted ankle and then at Steve's whole one. Quill had to listen to the alien repeat herself twice before he understood. "I think she's talking about transplants. She's saying that we need to replace Tony's organs."

"He can have my kidney," Steve, Clint, and Rhodey all said at once.

Quill wrinkled his nose. "It's more complicated than that. Stark needs new lungs, new bones, new skin… A new heart. And he needs it soon—he needs it **NOW**."

Pepper swayed a bit and grasped Rhodey's elbow. "Got my hopes up," she whispered.

"We don't trade lives," Steve whispered to himself. He knelt at Tony's side. He touched the dead reactor in the center of Tony's chest, and then cupped his burned cheek. "But I'll happily trade mine, for you," he told Tony. Steve stood. "I'll do it," he announced. Cap held his arms out as if surrendering. "Take anything you want from me. Take everything from me. If my life can save his, then take it."

"No!" voices cried.

"You can't be serious," Rhodes said, a bit reluctantly.

"Cap, no," said Scott. "I'm sorry about Stark but… No!"

"Steve…" Bruce shifted from side to side. He toed a bit of debris and then kicked it away. "This isn't what Tony would want."

"This is my choice," Cap said. "This is how I… I want to thank him. I owe him this. We all owe him. He saved the universe." Steve took a long, lingering inhale. "I volunteer. Do it, Adore. Do it now."

Every witness jumped when a figure slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of Cap's head. Steve collapsed to one knee, then the other and then, after swaying for a solid five seconds, ended up face down in the dirt. "Thanks for being with me," Bucky Barnes told his unconscious friend, "until the end of the line." Barnes set his weapon down, shrugged towards the crowd, then said, "_I_ volunteer."

**To Be Continued**

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	2. Side Effects

**Summary:** Bucky makes his decision.

**The 3000 Era  
**PenPatronus  
Chapter 2  
**Side Effects**

Bruce jogged over to Steve, rolled him onto his back, and checked his vitals. Once he was sure that Cap was relatively unharmed, he glared up at Barnes and demanded, "Was that really necessary?"

Bucky snorted. Softly but firmly, he said, "Do you really think Steve would let me trade my life for Stark's if he was conscious? That he'd let any of us do it?"

Bruce opened his mouth as if to argue. He closed it almost immediately. "You're right," he admitted. Bruce slowly stood. He looked from Tony's body to Steve, to Bucky, and then back again. "You're… Sure?"

"Very."

Bruce held out his hand. "You're saving both of my friends," he acknowledged. Bucky returned the gesture and they shook hands. "Thank you."

Bucky offered Banner a humble shrug. "I owe both of them."

"Don't we all."

A squid-shaped alien ship limped from the opposite end of the battlefield over to the crowd gathered around Tony's body. Smoke leaked from its starboard nacelle and the entire wounded craft trembled where it floated. At Adore's signal, a pair of red lights shone down and two metal, casket-shaped and sized boxes descended. Dozens of tubes housing wires and who-knew-what-else connected the containers at their torsos. Both thrummed. Both gave off heat the crowd could feel. Adore aimed her potato-pliers and both devices opened. Through Quill, she told Thor to put Tony's body in the container on her left and for Bucky to lie down in the one on her right. Barnes stepped over the unconscious Rogers and climbed in without hesitation, without any last looks or words, without even taking a moment to look at the sky.

"Adore wants to be certain that you're 100% sure," Gamora translated for Bucky. "Every cell in your body will be used to repair Stark. Make no mistake about it…This will kill you." Barnes' only reply was to lie flat in the container with his arms crossed against his chest.

Pepper approached with Rhodey on her heels. She leaned into the first container and kissed Tony's forehead. Then she turned to Barnes. She hesitated, then put her hand on Bucky's shoulder. Before she could speak, Barnes whispered, "Do you know who I am?" She nodded. "Then you know I'm the man who murdered Howard and Maria Stark."

Surprising every witness, Pepper smiled. "As I understand it, the man who murdered them is dead. It doesn't matter that you have his same hands. You…You're the man who is saving my husband's life. That's all I need to know… And I don't know how to thank you."

Barnes blinked up at her. "I don't need thanks," he whispered. "I need Steve to be ok. That's… That's all I've ever really needed."

"We'll tell him what you did," Pepper promised. "We'll tell Tony. We'll tell everyone." She swallowed then said, quietly, "My daughter will know who you are."

The muscles along Bucky's jaw flexed. Liquid that wasn't quite yet tears floated in his eyes. "Take care of him for me."

"We will." Pepper squeezed his shoulder. "I swear we will."

Pepper stepped back. Adore stepped forward. Lids slid over the containers.

Bucky Barnes closed his eyes.

* * *

Tony Stark died looking into his wife's eyes.

And then he smelled sunlight and heard beeping and a familiar voice. "This fan mail is from Stacy Spires from Wisconsin, age 10," said Steve. "She says 'Thank you, Mr. Stark, for saving my horse, Raspberry. I was sad when she disappeared. Thank you for bringing back my brother, too. I missed him a little, but not as much as Raspberry. I hope you get well soon. Maybe you could come visit? You always look like you need a hug.'"

Tony licked his chapped lips. Robins chirped from an open window. He left his eyes closed.

Scratches of pen on paper. Steve spoke as he wrote. "Dear Stacy, we're very glad that your horse and your brother came back. Please give them both a hug from us, and we'll give Tony a hug from you. We hope he gets better soon, too. Love, the Avengers."

Tony took a deep breath with lungs heavy as bricks. He tried to swallow and failed three times until he could. The blanket atop him was familiar and he realized he was in his own bed in his own bedroom.

"Ok." Steve sighed like a man who was repeating a task for the hundredth time that day. "From Daniel. Ohio. 'Dear Tony Stark and Dr. Banner, I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am for the sacrifices you made for us. My twin baby girls vanished that day and, to be honest, I've struggled every day since with suicide. I'd given up hope—I think we all had. And then one afternoon I suddenly heard crying babies. I found Emma and Alysia in their cribs, safe and sound. Later we heard what happened on the news—magic stones? Time travel? An alien army? We're so blessed to have heroes like the Avengers. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, all.'"

Steve cleared his throat. Tony heard more papers rustling. "This one's for Bruce, this one's for me, this other one is for Thor. If he ever comes back to Earth with the Guardians we can pass it along. Ok, here we go. This little girl drew you a picture. I think that's you and her on a roller coaster eating spaghetti."

Tony wanted to see the spaghetti. He wanted to see the sunlight and the blanket and the robins. He wanted to see Steve. Tony opened his eyes.

Steve sat in a wooden chair on Tony's right. Envelopes peeked out of a basket on his lap. He wore jeans, a white button-down shirt, a beardless face with clean-cut hair, and the most haggard looking expression Tony had ever seen on him. He'd looked healthier when he was defrosted. He had dark semi-circles on ghost skin and bloodshot eyes.

Tony smiled and whispered with what little voice he had, "Please tell me nobody kissed me."

'Tony?" Steve leapt up and the basket of letters spilled across the floor. He briefly tripped on a sliding envelope, mimicking a cartoon characters slipping on a banana peel. "He's awake," Steve muttered as he struggled to regain his bearings. "You're awake—are you thirsty?" Cap took a glass of water off the nightstand and spilled half of it on the bedspread trying to hand it over. "Sorry, I—" Steve fumbled with one of Tony's flannel shirts hanging from a bed knob. He soaked up the water, then tossed the shirt under the bed. "I'm supposed to—Bruce said to ask you five questions when you woke up." Steve stretched over Tony's body and snagged an index card that was taped to the window. Shaking hands immediately dropped the paper and Tony yelped when Steve slammed his elbow into his chest reaching to catch it. "Oh god, Tony, I'm so sorry."

"Geeze, Mr. Magoo, calm down," said Tony, his voice dry and his tongue heavy. "What's wrong with you?"

"What's _wrong_?" Steve snorted. "Oh, wait, I'm also supposed to… Where's that clipboard?" Cap went digging through a pile of magazines and newspapers on a wooden rocking chair next to a vital signs monitor. Tony looked down to see a monitor clamped to his forefinger, IV needles in his arms, wires clamped to his chest, and a cannula in his nose. "When you wake up we're supposed to write down what your blood pressure is. And pulse. And respiration. Temperature and—_shit_." Steve's trembling hands sent the chair rocking and the entire pile joined the envelopes on the ground.

Tony shook his head in awe. He'd never seen his friend so clumsy, so uncoordinated, so frantic and distressed. "Cap… Cap! Steve, seriously, I don't know what's going on and you're freaking me out."

Cap suddenly went still—frozen. He wrapped the palm of his hand over his eyes. Both lips trembled and he sniffed wetly. Tony instantly preferred the previous version. He fidgeted under the blankets. "Sorry," Steve said a full minute later. "Sorry, I…" Suddenly, Steve crossed the room, gathered Tony up into his arms and hugged him tight.

Tony found the strength to pat Steve on the back. "I'm awake," he assured him. "Steve, I'm ok."

Cap wiped his eyes and sat on the side of the bed. "How do you feel?"

Tony wiggled his body to evaluate it. "Tired. Sore. Tired and sore, but…" Tony frowned. He lifted his hands to his face and the frown deepened. "I can… Can I see better? Oh, wait…" Tony looked around the room as if he'd find answers in the house plants and pictures of Morgan. "Wait, wait, wait… _Did I die_?"

"Yes. Worst moment of my life until…" Steve shut up for a second. Then he studied Tony's face for his reactions. "You were gone for almost 20 minutes."

"20?" Tony sputtered. "And my brain isn't mashed potatoes?"

Steve shrugged and said "Alien tech" like he was reporting the weather.

Tony stretched his extremities and winced. "I remember… Thanos. The stones. Snapping my fingers and pain and then… Pepper. Did it work?"

"It worked. Thanos, his army, every single ally he had all over the galaxy turned to dust."

"And the stones?"

"Returned to their timelines." Steve reached, retreated, then grasped his hand around Tony's forearm. "You saved the universe, Tony."

Tony blinked. He looked down and fingered a small rip in the bedspread. "Had a little help," he said. And then, with a familiar smirk and twinkle in his eyes, he winked and said, "A little."

Steve grinned. "Can you move?"

"I think so." Tony rolled his covers to the side. He was barefoot and wearing gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt. His nails and facial hair were neatly trimmed. He smelled of Axe bodywash. When he lifted his knees up they hurt, and every joint felt stiff. "I was in a comma," he deduced.

"Yes."

"How long?"

"Three months, three days, and seven hours."

"I'm sorry but I wanted you to be _more_ specific." Tony looked at his hands again. "I swear I can see better…"

"Yeah, well…" Steve dropped his eyes and cleared his throat. "Bruce thought that might happen."

"That the alien tech would improve my sight?"

"That you might be improved in every way."

"Well, wasn't that nice of the magical alien doctors."

"They didn't do this on purpose, Tony. It's kind of a… Side effect."

"A side effect of what?"

Steve chewed his lower lip. He looked up at the monitor and read the vitals. "You're tired. You're still feverish… I should tell you later."

Puzzle pieces fell together in Tony's mind. "Cap did you, uh, donate blood to me? Am I…Is there super-soldier serum in me?"

Steve nodded. Tony both paled and blushed, intrigued. His excitement went stale a moment later. "Blood was donated, Tony, but it wasn't mine."

"Then who…" Tony's eyes widened. "No, I tried to _kill_ him. Why—_Why would he do that_?"

A quiver rippled across Steve's lips and jawline. "Tony, Buck gave you more than blood. He gave his life for yours. The tech took all of his organs and transplanted them to you."

"_Why_?"

"You know why."

"This is about my parents?"

"Among other things."

"I don't know what to say… He was your best friend, your brother…"

"Yes, he was. But you're my brother too, Tony." Steve squeezed his arm. Tony rotated his wrist and squeezed back. "I'm grateful you're alive."

Tears filled Tony's eyes but didn't spill. "I was ready to die. I knew that snap would kill me. You should—You should've just left me dead."

"It was his decision," Steve said it with such force that Tony knew to be quiet about the matter from then on. "There's one more side effect." Tony's eyebrows rose. "Look at your left arm."

Tony did, and discovered several small clumps of silver metal dotted across the surface of his skin. "What the hell?"

"Those are places where your bones broke. They, um, were repaired with the cells from Bucky's left arm."

Tony knocked on each spot with a knuckle. "You didn't remove his metal arm before the transfer, did you."

Steve shifted awkwardly. "Morgan thinks it's funny. She says you're not Iron Man anymore, you're Vibranium Man."

**To Be Continued**

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	3. Obstacles

**Summary:** Clint's remembers the final battle against Thanos. Bruce discovers something disturbing about Tony's condition.

**The 3000 Era  
**PenPatronus  
Chapter 3  
**Obstacles**

Clint Barton, wearing jeans and a black t-shirt under a flannel shirt, didn't even bother to wash his grease-stained hands when he got Steve's text: HE'S AWAKE. He gave Laura a kiss, hugged each of his children for the fifth time that day, and jumped into his pickup truck. He drove all afternoon. He drove all evening. He drove all night and reached the Stark lake house around dawn. FRIDAY scanned him and immediately opened the front door. Clint tiptoed up the stairs past Steve, who was passed out on the living room couch. He tiptoed past the first bedroom, Morgan's bedroom, where the child and her mother slept soundly. Clint pried open the door to the master bedroom and, in the dim light, saw Bruce Banner keeping vigil in a rocking chair. Banner looked up and yawned while he gestured for Clint to come inside. Clint shut the door behind him without a sound, but his feet on the hardwood floor startled Tony Stark out of a light doze. Stark stretched stiff arms and legs under a quilt. He turned his head back and forth and then examined the Vibranium in his arm before noticing his friends. Bruce rose from his chair and, ignoring the scowl on Stark's face, took his wrist and checked his pulse. He then held the back of his palm against Tony's cheek, then his forehead. Banner frowned. Tony rolled his eyes and greeted Clint with a smile.

"There he is." Clint approached, grinning, and shook Tony's hand. "How's the family?" Stark asked.

Clint's smile widened. "Alive. Alive and… Perfect." Clint placed a hand on Tony's shoulder and the other on Bruce's. "Thanks to the two of you." Bruce, who was in his human form, blushed and shrugged. "Arm's all better, huh?"

Bruce made a fist with his left hand. "A dozen sessions in Helen Cho's regeneration cradle did it," he stated.

"You both look a hell of a lot better than the last time I saw you…"

* * *

**3 Months Ago**

When Thanos' mothership fired down on the entire battlefield, Clint ended up on his stomach wedged between a puddle of muddy, bloody, shin-high water and some sort of dead alien troll. Trapped in darkness, in a purgatory between drowning and being squished to death, all Clint could think about was how Bruce had restored his family, but he wouldn't get to see them again. Then, half a moment before he lost his strength, the troll suddenly exploded into confetti. Clint rolled over and lay face up in the water, reminding him of how he woke up half-submerged with the soul stone in his hand. Ashes hovered in the hot air. Rays of sunlight emerged through black clouds.

A splash in the water behind him. "_Clint_!" A limping, bleeding Wanda Maximoff waded over and fell to her knees beside Barton. The friends embraced.

"What's happening?" Wanda gasped, helping the wheezing Clint to his feet. "What's going on?"

Clint wiped blood and mud off the side of his face. "Someone used the Infinity Stones," he panted, coughing. Suddenly he froze, staring. "You're alive," he realized out loud. Clint pulled Wanda back into an even fiercer hug. "God, I've missed you."

"I…" Wanda gulped. "I think I was dead. Was I dead?"

"Five years. Wanda, it's been five years. We got the Infinity Stones and Bruce… Bruce…" Clint held her at arm's length, and she looked at him with a face scrunched in concern. "Oh, God, I hope…"

Wanda gripped his shoulder. "What is it? You hope… What?"

Clint shook his head. "Bruce could use the stones. Danvers probably could. Thor, maybe… God, I hope it was one of them who used them."

"And if it wasn't?"

Clint couldn't hold back the shallow tears in his eyes. It had been a long day. "Then somebody's dead."

"Barton!" Both Clint and Wanda pivoted and spotted a human Bruce Banner limping across the battlefield towards them. Clint and Wanda climbed out of the water and met Banner between two piles of debris. Neither Banner nor Barton gave a damn about shallow masculinity in that moment and they embraced. After the initial hug they pulled Wanda between them and she dropped a few tears on Clint's chest. When they parted, Clint and Bruce simultaneously asked each other, "Did you see who it was?"

Bruce shook his head. "Thor was near Thanos, I think. T'Challa and that spider kid were taking on some Chitauri less than twenty yards away. Cap and Tony weren't far. It… It could be any of them. Or it could be somebody else. I—I don't know!" Bruce's bottom lip trembled. "Clint, what if they're dead?"

Clint gulped. He wobbled on suddenly weak knees. A crowd was forming around something in the distance. The battlefield went mute. "We gotta go," he whispered. "Banner, we have to see."

Thor intercepted them on the edge of the crowd. His beard was dirty, his face sweaty, his eyes shining. "It's too late," he said. "Brothers, it's too late."

The crowd parted. Every pair of eyes avoided their gazes. Clint knew what he was going to see—actually, he knew he was about to see one of two scenarios: Steve Rogers on the ground, or Tony Stark. It had to be one of them, judging by the absolute grief on Thor's face. The last of the crowd stepped aside and revealed…

Clint gasped. More than one tear fell down his cheeks.

Steve was on his feet. Pepper was on her knees.

Tony Stark was dead.

* * *

Bruce drew three vials of Tony Stark's blood. "Vampire," Tony growled at him. His heartrate went up, down again and then up once more. Clint watched the numbers bouncing on the monitor.

"Don't be such a baby," Bruce said with a soft smile. He pocketed the vials and turned to Barton. "Can you stay with him?"

"I don't need a babysitter!"

"I'll stay with him." Clint sat on the side of the bed. He watched Tony's eyes watch Bruce leave the room and shut the door behind him. "What?"

Tony sighed. He leaned back into his pillows and shut his eyes. "Nothing."

Clint almost let it slide. "Tony."

Tony opened his eyes. He pursed his lips together, then shrugged. "There's something he's not telling me."

"What makes you say that?"

"He took blood from me the minute he got here. Then a few hours later. Now he needs more."

"What's he testing for?"

"That, Legolas, is the question." Tony stared at the door. "Do me a favor?"

Clint snorted. He rolled up his sleeves and relaxed into the mattress. "Tony, you saved the universe. There's nothing any of us wouldn't do for you."

"Kiss me."

"_What_?"

Tony threw his head back and let loose a loud belly laugh. "Your face!"

"Tony," Clint chuckled, "Come on, man, what do you really need?"

Stark enjoyed the laugh for another half a minute. He smacked his fist against the quilt on top of him. Eventually, he went still. "Listen… If there is something wrong, don't tell Pepper and Morgan. They've been through a lot."

Barton hesitated, considered the request, and fell back on his normal MO: he'd make a promise, but take it back later if the situation called for it. "Sure, Tony."

"I mean it. Pepper almost fainted when she saw that I was awake, and Morgan climbed into bed with me and didn't let go until about an hour ago." Tony rotated his head so that his cheek was against the pillow and he could look straight up at Clint's face. "Tell me something. You and Laura. How do you do it?"

Clint shifted on the quilt. "How do we do what?"

"For years, years and years, you've had to leave your family for missions."

"I always came back."

"You always came back. I almost didn't."

Clint rolled his eyes. "Tony, I can't begin to count how many times I almost didn't come back."

"My point. Yes. How do you and Laura deal with that?"

Clint wrapped one finger around a loose string in the quilt. "It's not complicated, Stark. Lots of _I love you_. Lots of _I'll be back soon_. Lots more of _I love you_. I never leave the house without telling my family I love them."

"Look at you, Mr. Sensitive," Tony teased.

Barton didn't rise to the bait. "You know who I didn't say _I love you_ to enough?"

Stark stiffened. "Please don't say her name," he begged. The pair nodded at each other. "I miss her, too."

Clint sidestepped the subject by circling back around. "Tony, you've been through more than I can imagine. If you want to never go on a mission again, if you want to retire from the Avengers, none of us would blame you."

"Me?" Tony stretched his neck up. "I'm not talking about me. I'm not talking about me having to leave my family behind."

"Then, who—?

"Pepper! Have you not met that woman? When she latches on to something, she latches on hard and doesn't give it up. You saw her at the battle against Thanos. Damn, that girl kicked ass."

Clint grinned. "She sure did."

"She's got the bug. I can tell. You know how it is. You get a taste of the hero life and you're addicted. I can't—" Out of the blue, Tony's eyes shone with tears. "I can't bear the thought of her going into battle. Especially without me."

"Tony…" Clint gripped his friend's wrist. "We'll look after her. You know we will."

"Swear it."

"I swear."

"Swear it on Nathaniel's life."

"I swear."

* * *

When Bruce didn't emerge from the basement lab for breakfast or lunch, Steve put a sandwich together and headed downstairs. He found Bruce sitting at a desk looking through a microscope. He set the sandwich down and started to speak but before he could get out a word, Banner asked, "Did you know that Barnes was dying?"

"What?"

Bruce sighed and pushed back his chair. "Probably had a year. Maybe one and a half."

Steve pulled a chair over and sat in front of Bruce. "What are you talking about?"

"Decades—for decades Hydra pumped him full of chemicals, most of which I can't begin to decipher. The super soldier serum protected him from any dangerous effects—well, beyond what they were intended for—but it could only do that for so long. Barnes was dying. Poisoned."

Steve dropped his face into both palms. "I know what you're going to tell me next and I don't want to hear it."

"Would you rather I lie?"

"I'd rather not lose my friend. Again." Steve dug his knuckles into both eyes. "What do we do?"

Bruce shook his head. "I don't know," he said, quietly.

"Bruce, _what the hell do we do_?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" The veins in Bruce's neck briefly flashed green. He gathered himself, suppressed his emotions, and took a deep breath and exhaled a longer one. "We need to find out more about those chemicals. I can't create an antidote if I don't know what I'm dealing with."

"Then that's what we'll do." Steve shoved his chair back and stood up with his chin held high. "HYDRA hasn't been the same since the first Snap. It's still unorganized. It shouldn't be too hard to track down their scientists. We'll assemble and get those bastards." Steve expected to see a smile on Banner's face, but his expression remained hopeless. "Bruce…"

Banner shook his head.

"_Bruce_!"

"Barnes was poisoned slowly over the years. One dose at a time. Tony got every chemical in one go."

"What are you saying?"

"We have weeks. Maybe two. If we can't find an antidote, Tony's dead."

**To Be Continued**

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